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Saturday, October 11, 2014

Plastc Card Replaces Credit and Gift Cards using e-Ink

Avid consumers find themselves with a wallet or purse full of credit and gift cards. Startup Plastc is seeking to solve this situation with the advent of the Plastc Card. It utilizes touchscreen e-ink technology and you can add all of your credit, debit, gift and loyalty cards to one single card and flip between them with a single touch.

Plastc helps you pay any way and anywhere you want. It features a magnetic stripe and barcode display, your Plastc Card will work in all the places you already frequent. The card employs NFC, Chip and PIN capabilities and you can even attach your photo ID to the card. Within the next few months it will have support for Google Wallet, Apple Pay, PayPal and other payment options.

The one cool thing about this new card is that the magnetic stripe and NFC chip are disabled until you select your card, preventing any fraudulent activity. If you end up losing the card, you can remotely wipe all data from it using the official app.

So how does this actually work? Well, you need to download the Plastic Companion app for iOS and Android. You can link any of your credit cards, debit cards or gift cards by inputting the numbers into the app. You can also add in a signature and photo ID for those big purchases. Once this is all done, you can use the card at the ATM or when you are shopping. If you have a bunch of cards tied into the Plastc Card, you can just swipe the physical card to scroll between them.

While the idea of combining of multiple credit, debit, and gift cards into one secure package may be an enticing tech novelty, the card comes at a price: $155 to preorder. It will not start shipping until summer 2015. It also operates on a rechargeable battery with a 30-day charge. In the end, I think this is one of the coolest uses of e-ink that is not found on a dedicated e-reader like a Kindle or Nook.